g j § [ 2 5 8 7 ]
CRYPTOGAM1A Hepaticce.
Gen. Char. Male flowers sessile. Anthers stalked.
Capsule on a stalk, rising from a sheath, of 4 valves.
Seeds attached to elastic filaments.
Spec. Char. Erect, subdivided. Leaves in two rows,
flat, erect, close-pressed, orbicular; the uppermost
somewhat kidney-shaped. Scales minute,
remote, on the youngest branches. Sheaths terminal,
fleshy, four-toothed, permanent, immersed
in the imbricated foliage.
Syn. Jungermannia compressa. Hooker Brit. Jung,
t. 58.
(yOMMUNlCATED by Dr. Taylor, who found it in Lough
Bray; as did Miss Hutchins in mountain rivulets near Bantry,
Ireland; producing capsules in June.
The stems are from two to six inches high, erect when not
disturbed by a strong current, more or less branched, leafy,
forming broad tufts, of a brown or purplish green. Leaves very
closely pressed to the stalk, in two erect rows, nearly orbicular,
but rather broader than long, entire, pellucid, strongly reticulated;
the upper ones largest, more kidney-shaped, and somewhat
wavy. Stipulary scales very small and distant, entire or notched,
found, according to Dr. Taylor and Mr. Hooker, on the ydungest
shoots only. Sheaths terminal, solitary, completely concealed
by the upper leaves, two Or three pair of which are imbricated
over and inserted upon them. Each is oblong, four-toothed,
fleshy and permanent, being, according to Mr. Hooker’s curious
remark, a sort of hollow or pouch in the extremity of the stem.
We would observe that the lateral exposed pouches of some other
species, as J. trichomanis, t. 1875, and viticulosa, t. 2513, the
fructification of which last is given in Hooker, t. 60, are in structure
more akin to the above than may at first sight be supposed.